Dance Shows 2011

After a week of dress rehearsals for both the
Jazz show and the Ballet, the girls did a
fabulous job at the performances on Friday and
Saturday nights. We weren't allowed to record
during the actual performances, so I had to
make sure I was at the rehearsals at the right
times to film them. Unfortunately, because they
are rehearsals, you can hear babies crying and
the directors telling them to smile and a
choreographer's hand come in the the picture, she
was right in the way and I was trying to film
around her. Anyway, The girls are just getting
so much better and they are so fun to watch!


Paris went through a period of not loving ballet for
a while. She has been telling me her feet hurt. I got
her new ballet shoes, but it didn't help much. I'm
thinking we may need to see a podiatrist, she
walks a little funny and complains about her
feel every now and then. Anyway, but as soon as
she knew what her classes part was in the ballet and
what their costumes were going to look like, she got
really excited and loved ballet again.  Her costumes
were a huge mess, and long story, short, the beautiful
midnight blue ones ordered for them were given to a
different class on accident and then problems upon
problems later, her class received the leftovers of many
other classes. I know this because I was a seamstress
this year and was given these random tutus the day
before rehearsal to sew and make semi pretty and matching.
They ended up not looking too bad on stage mostly
because the wings made them all match. Paris' costume
was one of the prettier ones and thankfully her favorite color,
so she was happy!

Again, this is a rehearsal, so the lighting wasn't right and
they didn't have up the really pretty woodland set.


I got to see Evey dance her ballet, but not sure why I didn't get it on
film, but just know she was beautiful!!  She can't wait for September,
when she is 11 1/2 and they will evaluate her for pointe shoes. She is
confident they will let her, it's all up to her own little body. We have
to take her to the dr to make sure she is at 90% of her adult height,
and that the bones in her foot are formed enough to put them through
the torture of pointe! She's not going to be a tall girl, so hopefully she
has a little growth spurt this summer, so she'll be ready!

Paris loved her Jazz/tap class!! When it came time for choreographing
the number they would do her teacher held a vote in the class on
weather they would do a tap  or a jazz dance. She said it was tied, but
one girl was missing that day, so her vote would be the deciding vote.
So obviously that girl chose tap.  Paris had voted jazz, but was still
happy, especially because she really likes the song.  It makes me laugh
though because in both of her dances, Paris knew the steps, but
because the teacher stands off stage and does the dance for those that
may forget, she looks over there, and misses steps sometimes.  She did
it perfectly at the show and didn't even glance at the teacher! We will
get a DVD from the show later down the road.




This is Evey's company (JDC) dance. I have loved her teacher and
the choreography she does, it is very beautiful and Evey loves her too.
Evey is hoping to move up to the next level company, CDC, at auditions
in August.  CDC does more dances per show and Evey is so ready for
that! But you have to be 11, so this is just her year as far as advancing in
dance!




I hadn't seen any of the girls dances until the rehearsal. I just drop them
off and pick them up. Evey's teacher had told me a while ago that she
had a special part for Evey in her Jazz piece. This is the same teacher
as JDC, Emily, and Evey said that Emily had told her she choereographed
this piece with Evey in mind as the featured dancer. So when I saw this,
I was crying like a baby. I would say it is from pregnancy hormones,
but I'm not sure I can shrug this off on that this time! I was just so proud.
She dances really well and had such a pretty smile! I think all of the other
video taping mommies there at rehearsal thought I was crazy, bawling my
eyes out.  Hey but it wasn't bad enough that you can hear me on the video,
so that's good!! Wink!
Evey also got recognition from "the star" dancer at the show on Friday.
We had left our makeup bag and  hair straightener at the Covey center
and when we found the bag on Friday, the straightener was gone, so I
couldn't curl Evey's hair, so we had to go in the big girls dressing room
to use one of theirs. When Angel (this is the most featured dancer in the
whole studio!) saw Evey she said "oh, I love you!!" I think it was a great
boost of Evey's confidence, but she is just so wonderful and humble,
she didn't let it go to her head....I guess it went to mine!!

JDC '10-11

We finally got the cd with the photo
shoot for JDC back in September.
This is the photoshoot she had to miss
most of Lex's awesome birthday party for.
Anyway, I won't complain (too much).
I love them! She is so beautiful!!

So, We Think She Can Dance!

Last night and tonight all of the

Companies danced their February

show at the Covey Center.

We saw it last night, unfortunately the

theater wouldn't let me take pictures.

Hopefully pics and video to come later

through the dance studio.

We're so proud of Evey and her beautiful

talent. She has grown so much as a little

lady and a graceful dancer. I had to hold

back tears watching her, even though their

song was spunky and upbeat. She is the

smallest one out there, but she knows all

her steps and keeps right up with all the

big girls! She's really had a ton of fun!

These are her head shots and company picture.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

The month of December was a blur!! I don't even know

how to go about writing about it with out just going day

by day or week by week I guess...so here we go...

Keep in mind both Jon and I have regular classes and the

girls have dance 3 days a week.

Dec. 1 - I have an OB appt. Doing well. I've lost another

pound. Grand total so far -26. Baby is doing great. Nice

strong heartbeat and growing just fine. Evey's last Jazz

rehearsal before performances.

Dec. 3 - Regular Dance class for Paris. Evey records

"Could I Hold the Baby" It was a really cool experience.

They set up all the equipment to fit her and then had her

do a "test" run. Once they had all the volumes and

everything equalized they told her this was the real thing.

She went through the song twice, then they had her go

back and do just a few measures here and there where

either her voice wobbled a little or she took a breath or

made a noise that was picked up. Then we got to go into

the control room and watch as they took bits and pieces

from each recording, even the "test," and make it sound

beautiful. Brian said that he usually has a hard time

working with children( that sounds bad Brian is seriously

the nicest guy in the world, but sometimes kids are hard

to work with , ya know!), but Evey was so easy and did

what they asked. They also said that her voice is right

on pitch and didn't need any computer help or enhancement.

He said most people need a little bit of help, and that is why

recording artists sound so good on their CDs but not so great

live. So when you hear the recording it is Evey's true voice.

It was just such an awesome experience. Sad I didn't bring my

big cam and the point and shoot stinks!! So pictures stink,

I put one of Evey singing in the video and one of her and

Brian in the post below. Thank you to Brian Jensen for giving

her such a great opportunity. Brian's website

is musicforworship.net He has lots of great music. Check him out.

After we got home from the studio, we rush to get Evey ready

to perform with JDC at a retirement home. They did really well,

this was the first we got to see this dance they had been

practicing. Then I had Stake choir rehearsal.

Dec 4 - Evey gets to skip school to go touring local elementary

schools with all the big dance companies to put on Christmas

Dance Assemblies.

Dec 5 - Steak Choir rehearsal. Photo shoot for the Burton

Family. They are total rock stars!! It was so fun to shoot their

family!! And, Photo shoot for the Boshard Family, they were

also really fun! They needed no coaching what-so-ever and

came out beautiful!! It was freezing too, and their kids were

great! I'm in the process of creating a new blog strictly for

my photography, so I'll post these families on that soon.

Dec 6 - First Snow! Hurray! I decided to take a picture of the

birds we love to feed. Utah doesn't have very colorful birds,

but they are cute and we get a TON. There are a few huge flocks

that come around sometimes. They all move as a single unit and

I swear there are over 300 birds. They'll all land in the yard

and when they take off all at once you can FEEL it, it's pretty cool.

We also have added a resident hawk this year. It is funny

to see the little birds suddenly disappear and then a few seconds

later the hawk is out on the fence. Oh, the poor bids have to

disappear too for a neighbors cat who likes to come sit on the top of the

fence and watch them. We noticed him in our honeysuckles

(that are growing on the fence in large supply) he'd sit all proud

in them and then crouch really low, but we could still see his

eyes and ears. Sometimes we let Orion out, he can smell the cat

and goes to the fence right under him, but he can't find it. The

cat keeps a close eye on him and doesn't even flinch if a bird flies

right in front of his face. Our kitty on the other hand would rather

sit comfy and warm in the house and is content to watch the birds

from the window!

Look it's Lex! I haven't said much about the poor kid. He has just gotten

toted around every where and had to watch his sisters do every thing.

His time will come!!

Dec 7 - I start cramming for 2 end of term exams and an oral

presentation for this week.

Dec 8 - I give my Oral presentation for Psych. Evey has her

first Choir concert. She is so cute she knew all of the songs and

even had a little solo with 2 of her friends. It was funny too

because they sang 2 songs that Jon and I had sung in Mads so

many years ago. I have video of the whole thing, but chose to

only upload a part of this song for all those WP choir kids out there.

Just before the concert

Dec 11 - At the beginning of the year I met with Evey's

teacher to find out if she needed any help on things throughout

the year like treats and stuff. I vowed to only be class mom for

each kid's Kindergarten year, because it really is a hard job.

Well, When Evey was in Kindergarten I was Prego with Paris

and now here I am at Paris' Kindergarten and I'm Prego

again! But I did it then and I'm doin' it now! Anyway, my point

was that I'm not Evey's class mom but still let the teacher know

I could help out if she needed it.

She wondered if anyone played the piano. I reluctantly told

her I could if there was no one else on earth to play. Well, she

calls me at the beginning of Dec and asks if I can play for their

4th grade Christmas program. Stupidly, I agree! So...I go to

the school to Practice with the 4th grade.

Dec 12 - Ward Christmas Party. I might not have gone, because

Jon was working, but because I signed up (don't ask me why) to

bring a salad, and because I conned Mom into going with me,

we went. The kids got to see Santa and play with friends so it

was worth it!

Dec 13 - I sing in a quartet in Church. It went well. I had to

apologize to my ever patient friends for not being able to

practice with them as much as they would have liked. That

evening is the Annual Stake Christmas concert. I absolutely

love fall and starting practice for this concert. The director,

Mike Austin, is a charismatic, crazy man (he won't take

offence, he'd appreciate the complement) And if you know

me, you know we'd get along just great!! And I love singing

and I love Christmas music, so this is just so fun to be a part

of. I even got Jon to go a couple times. But, after working

late on Friday nights he didn't like getting up at 7 am to

practice. So, he didn't perform, even though he could have!!

Rotten! So, Mike asked me to sing a solo for this concert.

It is a beautiful song, I definitely did not feel qualified for

the part, but he seemed to have faith in me, so I agreed.

It went really well. CD to come later for those interested.

Dec 14 - Evey gets to skip school again for the 4th grade ski

trip. She had a ton of fun! I go to practice with the 4th grade

every afternoon this week. Both Jon and I cram for finals this

week. The owner of the girls dance studio calls me every now

and then to help her with photoshop or final cut, so I go to help

for a couple hours. I take my Psych. final. Ugh! We start the 12 Days

of Christmas for our super sweet neighbors (pics later in the post)

Evey skips her Ballet and Jazz in class Christmas Performances

because she is worn out! I don't blame her!

Dec 15 - Somehow Paris teacher caught wind I play the piano

and asked if I could play for the Kindergarten Christmas

program. How she found out I'll never know, I didn't tell her.

Again, Stupidly I agreed. I had not thought this week through

when I did though. So I have to start practicing with both the

morning and afternoon kindergartens, and 4th grade. I had an

OB appt. (there getting closer together now) No weight change.

Baby still doing great. But they tell me I need to have another

ultrasound because they didn't get good enough pictures of a

few things at the 20 week one. Whatever, I'm not worried, maybe

they'll get a better picture of her this time. Evey skips JDC

(regular dance) for a ballroom dance performance tonight. She has

been going to after school ballroom, drama, and cooking.

Apparently she takes after me and loves to do EVERYTHING.

Anyway, She has loved being in ballroom, of course, it's dancing,

but I think she will keep with it. She did really, really good! The

Provo High Ballroom team came to perform. They were really good

too! Evey had skipped the last two after school drama practices so

she didn't get to perform in that (they did their play in between dances)

But she was totally okay with it, she just had a little part, and I think

that is not so much her thing anyway. I have pics of this but they didn't

turn out so good because of the angle we were sitting and they had the

tall kids in the front a lot. Boo!

Dec 16 - Study, study, study. Practice, practice, practice. Edit

pictures of the photo shoots from back a week ago??? Ahhhh!!

4th grade program is today. They had it set up so nice. Evey's

teacher Mrs. Terry goes all out for everything, I swear she

spends so much of her own money on everything, but it's just

fabulous!! She put together a cute little slide show of pictures

the kids brought in from past Christmases and the kids sang

this beautiful song while it was playing. It was really special.

Sadly I didn't get to watch it or how Evey did because I was

playing the piano. But, I didn't embarrass myself so I'm pretty

proud. Jon did try to record the program, but I haven't even

watched it because I'm afraid to hear me play.

Evey is third from the left on the bottom row. We're not sure why she's not dressed very well,

I think we were in a super hurry this morning!

Dec 17 - Today is the Kindergarten Program.

Paris is too dang cute. She loved singing these

songs and was so excited to wear "reindeer ears"

They made arrangements with the 4th grade and

got to use their awesome decorations too.

Apparently these are the only two grades that actually

have a special Christmas performance. I again didn't get

to see how Paris did, and Jon has it recorded, but I haven't

watched it, for the same reasons. Then Paris had her in -class

Christmas performance in Ballet. She is getting pretty

good too, she was one of two girls who really knew what

they were doing. I took video but didn't have a great angle,

thanks to being late, so I won't post it.

It's my mommy's birthday. We unfortunately don't

get to see her, because of our schedule and she has her

company Christmas party anyway, but Jon and Kurt and

Abby took her to see the midnight showing of Avatar.

I decided I wouldn't last 'til 10 pm, let alone 3am!!!

She was loving posing for pictures! She specially requested to wear a christmas dress and have

her hair curled!

Dec 18 - The school has an all grade sing-a-long, and

since I was the pianist for the programs I get to be

there and play for both Kindergarten and 4th grade.

Jon and I take the rest of our finals. But, I

didn't finish until midnight because I had a few

homework assignments to turn in and a take home

final to finish typing up. A huge sigh of relief at

midnight!!! Girls are out of school, we're out of school,

now to focus on Christmas!

Dec 19 - Had a planned Photo shoot, but they cancel

because their kids are sick. Phew! This is the first Saturday

in a lot of weeks there is no 7 am stake choir practice,

so I got to sleep in a little bit!! But, not too much, we

have a lot of shopping to get done. Even though we

have a lot done, there's always something more to get,

right!?! Like Christmas dresses. I would loved to have

sewn them this year, like I have in the past, but, well I

think you can guess why that didn't get done. We tried

to shop for some dresses and something for Lex, but I

was way too picky. We found one for Evey, but poor

Paris and Lex wore things they already had. I guess I

need to make Christmas outfits when I have the sewing

machine out for Halloween!

Dec 20 - No Pictures in Christmas clothes because we're

running late. But the girls had beautiful hair and Lex was

very handsome!! All the kids are suppose to sing prelude in

church with the primary, but we're running late and just miss it.

CRAP! I sing in the choir for the Christmas program.

Mom asked Evey to sing a song for her lesson in her ward,

so after our meetings, I take Evey over and play the piano

for her to sing. She sang beautifully, of course! I have to

mention though that she only saw the music for the first

time at like 8pm the night before. She is quite amazing.

Dec 21 - Ultrasound. The tech lady tells me that the

notes say I was supposed to have a follow up ultrasound

4 weeks after the first one, but nobody told me. Oops on

their part. The baby is really too big for them to see what

they needed, she did find one thing that they couldn't see

before, I don't remember what it was, but she checked

everything all over again and said everything looked good.

Baby is hiding her head deep down in my pelvis, so she didn't

get a good picture. Un-photogenic baby, uhh ohh!

But she did say that she's still pretty sure she's a she. She said

that based on the length of the femur the baby isn't due until

Feb 4. But, she's the first tech to realize that I'm small and

my kids are small and so she didn't officially change the date.

Thank goodness!!

Dec 22 - Shop, Shop ,Shop

Dec 23 - Shop, Shop, Shop, Shopping all the day!

oh, what fun it is to shop, yes I shopped the day away!

We had someone give us "12 Days" presents one year

and loved it so much. We have always wanted to do it for

someone. We think about it every year, but decided to just

dive in this year. Our poor other neighbors and friends, we

didn't get our Christmas treats made and delivered. Not that

we weren't thinking about you guys! It just didn't happen

this year, but we love you all a ton!

We planned out our 12 days of gifts and started on the 14th.

A few days got changed here or there because we didn't have

something made or ready in time, but we did get a gift out

everyday. Jon usually took the gift over and rang the doorbell

and ran. Evey had to do it twice when we didn't have something

completely finished, and Jon had to work. But she never got

caught. We found out later that they were so nice, they didn't

try to catch us, even though they really wanted to. So we tried

really hard to keep our identity hidden, but were sure our last

gift would give us away. I'm pretty sure also that they don't

look at our blog, so that's why I'm posting about it. And, because

it was so much fun for the family, we had to document everything.

On the 1st day- we gave a collection of "Crazy Carols" games.

I've collected over the years these different versions of the Christmas

Carols mixed up, like; One game uses opposites; Noisy Day =

Silent Night, or one uses big elaborate words to say the same thing;

Listen, the celestial harbingers produce harmonious melody =

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, or one is a bunch of pictures, like;

a picture of a knight with holes in his armor = O Holy Night.

On the 2nd day - we gave Stephens hot chocolate in individual

servings.

On the 3rd day - we gave a 1000 piece puzzle of the Nativity.

It was pretty. Unfortunately, it was one of the switchy days

and so we were in a hurry and I didn't get a picture.

On the 4th day - we gave a big basket of fruit. Again in a hurry,

no pic.

On the 5th day - we gave some scrumptious sugar cookies and

cute cutters. We thought it would be fun for them to decorate

them, we tried to do things that the family could enjoy together.

On the 6th day - we gave a Wendy's gift card. They are a really

busy family too, and we thought we'd give mom the night off from

cooking.

On the 7th day - we gave some homemade soaps. This was

really fun for everyone in our family to make. Okay so the

ones without the snowflakes are supposed to look like snow

globes, but it's hard to tell in the picture.

On the 8th day - We gave a Christmas ham. HICKORY

HONEY HAM!!! Just kidding, Love Christmas with the

Cranks!!

On the 9th day - We made rice heating/cooling pads. I

heard some where if you add cloves to them they don't

smell so much like rice when you stick them in the

microwave. I hope it works. This was another fun one

for our family, the kids had fun dumping in the rice.

On the 10th day - We gave one of our favorite Christmas

traditions, pipe chimes. This one involved a lot of Jon's

hard work cutting each one to the right size for the right

pitch, then drilling the holes for the string. They are a very

musical family so I think they'll like them. Although, they

are super fun for anyone! Just a quick explanation, each pipe

is cut to a certain pitch and then numbered, then on poster

board you write the corresponding number to the note that

is to be played. Each person has a chime and a stick or spoon

and when it's your pipe's number in the song you give it a

smack. It's really fun and a lot of laughs trying to get everyone

in time together.

On the 11th day - we made a couple "Quillows" Although

I'm not sure how many people call them that, and ours

were super simplified. It's basically a blanket that folds

in and tucks into a sewn-in pocket and makes a pillow.

It's supposed to be a quilt, hence the name Quilt+pillow=Quillow,

but I didn't have time to make a quilt. The pocket also serves as

a nice place to stick your feet so they don't come out the bottom.

Very snuggy!

On the 12th day - we gave a movie. This is where I think they

would have figured us out, although they did come over and

their super sharp daughter did notice our set of chimes in the

same bag that we gave them, oops. We hoped they just

shrugged that one off! Anyway, we are kind of known in the

neighborhood as "Lindsey-buster" meaning we lend out from

our overly abundant movie collection. This particular family

likes to borrow the same series of movie a lot. So we thought,

we'd start their collection, starting with the first movie. Not

that we don't want to lend it to them anymore, but we know

they enjoy these movies and so , why not?! We threw in some

popcorn and a bowl to complete the movie experience.

We really had a lot of fun as a family doing this and it was a

great way to teach our kids about giving. I think we'll make

it a new tradition.

JIngle Bells

Evey has had a ton of fun dancing in JDC (Jazz Dance Company)

This is an audition based company for the more serious girls 9-14

at her dance studio. They have more performances throughout the

year, and Christmas is one of them. They got to skip school one day

and tour some local elementary schools and put on assemblies.

Evey is so cute, she looks so grown-up.

I'm so frustrated! Blogger will only allow

me to post a movie that is 100MB or smaller.

This video is over that, so instead of posting

on youtube and then over to here, I had to

shrink the file, compromising the quality, BOO!

Oh well, enjoy anyway!

JDC

On Saturday Evey auditioned for the Junior Jazz Dance Company with her dance studio.  She has been so excited for this since last year. The girls have to be 9 to audition so she's been waiting for this for a while now. The company girls get to do many more shows than the regular dance girls. 

She has been working hard to be ready for this audition, stretching to get her splits. She was pretty nervous. But, I dropped her off for a few hours and came back just in time to hear the result of the audition, and.....SHE MADE IT!! She is so excited! She has two friends that made it with her and I think they will have a ton of fun together. 

GOOD JOB EVEY!! 

Push Play

Picture Warning: Who wants to be a photographer? Oh yeah me. But, I've been doing so bad a taking time out to capture the special moments in my kids lives. I didn't get very good pics of them in their costumes, and then had a super-hard time taking pictures and video at the same time during performances, AND now Paris's picture of her in her ballet costume won't load (BOO!), so these few are what we get. Sigh! Also, I apologize for the poor quality and wild camera shake of the video clips, again, taking pics and video doesn't work so great!

Reminder: Pause the "L"pod before watching the clips!

This year the girl's dance studio did Cinderella for the ballet. Paris was a little Palace maid. She loved doing her, "Feather Duster Dance" And, she was so excited to be on stage. She would get so excited on the mornings of rehearsal or a performance, "I get to be on STAGE today!!!!" Funny girl!

Evey was a Time O'Clock. They were basically Cinderella's time under the enchantment. Evey had fun because she got to be on stage 3 times. She has gotten into the habit of not smiling, or looking like she's enjoying herself. We're trying to work on that, because she absolutely loves to dance.

For the Jazz show Paris did a little tap dance to a Mary Poppins song. She knows it so well, she loves to do "hands down, feet out , feet in, Jump Up!" She flips her beautiful long hair. These videos were from a rehearsal, but at the actual show when they were done and walking off stage, she did this little look at the audience and then flipped her hair and stuck her nose in the air. We had a good laugh. My little princess knows she's too beautiful for everyone!

Evey decided to give up Tap this year for piano lessons. But she stayed with jazz. She really liked her teacher who was her mom in the Pioneer Pageant last year. She is also looking forward to trying out for the Jr. Jazz company this summer, and is pretty excited because the director of the Jr. company is this same teacher, who loves her. 

Dance Party 2

Paris lived in rollers when she wasn't in costume this week. But she doesn't mind she loved what she looks like when they come out.

At Paris' dance their Lynn had them each act out a little scene from what ever went along with their costume.  With Tink they were helping Peter Pan and then something happened and all the moms had to clap and say "I do believe in fairies!" For Paris they curtsied to their princes and he kissed their hand and the did a little waltz. Paris loved it, she was very into it.

We had to snap some shots in at home in the leaves. She loves the way her dress poofs out around her.

Dance party

The girls got to wear their costumes at dance this week. It was really cute, Rebecca had each of them choreograph a dance that went along with who they were. And look, I even got Evey's Letter on her shirt.